Hope and Determination
by SodaFiz
Summary: Sans had been hurt so many times that he just gave up, so why is he now starting to actually care again? (One Shot).


**A/N: So I've been playing Undertale lately and somehow out came this little one shot. I don't even really know how I came up with it. I just got an idea and ran with it. This also borders on what I'm pretty sure are semi-canon/semi-fan theory concepts just FYI. Also, in this fic I wrote Frisk as a girl, just because that's my personal interpretation. I know Frisk is ambiguous so I could be wrong, but I just wrote it that way. Anyway, it's rather short and a bit sad, but I enjoyed writing it. I hope you like it. R &R!**

 **Happy New Year!  
**

 **This is dedicated to my best friend, who was the person that introduced me to Undertale :D**

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Sans sighed and plopped his skull onto his blue jacket-covered arms. His jacket was large and squishy, perfect for sleeping on the job. Lately business had been slow at his hot dog stand with the snow on its top that never melted, even when in Hotland. The one who bought the most hot dogs from himself was that kid who had been running around the underground, killing and resetting, sparing and resetting. Every single memory haunted Sans like he'd been reincarnated a thousand times and then left to wallow in his misery, but he would never admit that out loud.

The lazy skeleton tapped his foot in boredom and rubbed his skull, trying to shake the memories from his mind. _That kid,_ he thought. _She just won't make up his mind. Is she evil? Is she good?_ He was inclined to believe the former considering the many times Sans had watched Papyrus die at the hands of Frisk. The skeleton shuddered and shook his head.

Too disturbed to sleep, he hoisted himself slowly onto his slippered feet and trudged onward. Not walked, but trudged.

Eventually even trudging along at a slow pace became boring. Sighing, Sans summoned a shortcut, teleporting to a thin, foggy path. At a distance stood two shadows: one tall and the other small. A happy loud voice was speaking something of dates and the Royal Guard, obviously Papyrus.

Observing carefully, Sans kept his eyes on Frisk. What would the kid choose this time?

Several minutes later, Papyrus fell. _So that's the path she's on now._ Sans turned away. He had seen this too many times and yet... somehow it still gave him a stab of pain in his nonexistent gut every time it happened.

Like all monsters did when they died, Papyrus faded into nothingness. Sans felt his eyes grow moist. His grin turned into something more like a grimace as he bottled his feelings. _I should leave now. I don't want to see the kid right now._ But something held him back. Something whimpered and he whipped around.

Frisk was perched on her haunches, rocking back and forth like she had just been traumatized. _But… she's gone genocide again._ She should have been revelling in Papyrus' death like Sans had seen her so many times before. Putting on his signature grin, Sans approached the child.

"Hey, kid."

Frisk's head shot up with a horrified expression. "S-s-s-sa..." her voice trailed off and she squeaked, burying her face against her knees. She began to rock once more. Suddenly her head whipped upward again, this time with a malicious grin across her face. Her eyes had changed to a bright crimson glow. "Sansssss," she drawled.

Sans took one step back. _I shouldn't have come,_ he thought as he turned to shortcut away.

Suddenly a scream behind Sans met his nonexistent ears. He turned back, no longer grinning but frowning. Frisk was kneeling on her hands and knees, staring up at the skeleton. "H-h-h-help," she whispered. Her eyes were no longer glowing, but had resumed their normal color.

 _Huh?_

"S-s-s-s-sans," wheezed Frisk. "H-h-h-help." She whimpered a second time. The previous red glowof her eyes came back, but disappeared mere seconds later before reappearing again. More whimpers escaped Frisk every time her eyes resumed to normal.

The expression of glowing eyes was eerily familiar to Sans. He raised an imaginary eyebrow in recognition. _Chara._

"I'm... s-s-s-s-s-orry!" Frisk rasped as she looked up at him with normal eyes once again. There was no sign of her normally neutral expression. In its place stood the puckered face of a terrified child, eyes pooling with tears. "H-h-h-help!"

It all clicked in place. Sans' jaw dropped. _So that was it,_ he thought. _That kid-Frisk-is innocent._

He turned away. _No._ That kid had done horrible things. She'd killed Papyrus hundreds of times. She'd killed his friends hundreds of times, but… she had also spared them hundreds of times. She had even befriended him hundreds of times, though he could never forget the terrible things she had done, but… Sans turned back to stare down at Frisk, who was whimpering again.

 _This is not Frisk,_ he finally decided. _This is the first human._

He'd thought he had seen Frisk's struggle before. Sometimes a flash of hurt innocence would briefly flash across the malicious glowing eyes. Sometimes a flash of evil intent would flash across the innocent eyes of compassion. It had looked like an internal battle between two souls: one good and pure, the other fallen and corrupted. The first soul was trying to conquer the last. Yes, Sans had caught glimpses of it of the many times he'd interacted with the human, both at a distance and up close, but never this much before.

Frisk stared at him, whimpering and pleading for relief from her mindful prison, her mindful battle. She had probably felt relieved at the times she spared the monsters, but horrible when she had been forced to kill him. She had reset so many times and gone so far, but she had not yet reached the end.

Suddenly Sans kneeled down and placed his bony hands on the child's shoulders. "Hey, kiddo," he said softly. Frisk stared into his eyes, tears tracing patterns down her cheeks. "You can do it," he firmly stated. "You can do this, kiddo. You can win. All you have to do is reset again, but this time don't let Chara influence you. Don't let Chara win. I know you can do it." Inwardly Sans sighed. That must've been the most inspirational thing he'd ever found himself saying.

Sans was taken aback when Frisk suddenly let out a sob and threw her arms around him. He gasped and stood there before awkwardly wrapping his own arms around the kid. Frisk sobbed her heart out. Sans' own expression turned somber.

She was just a child, a poor child possessed by the soul of a corrupted human. Frisk was innocent. It wasn't her fault she had fallen into the monster world and been taken advantage of by Chara.

The hug became more sincere and Sans held the child more tightly, less awkwardly. Frisk's grip tightened, like she was grasping for comfort she rarely received. "It's alright, kiddo," crooned Sans. "I once said I'd keep an eye socket out for ya, and… I'm going to do that."

Sans bit his bony lip. Had he just made a promise? He hated promises. He suddenly stood up, hoisting Frisk to her own feet. Frisk's arms dropped to her sides, but Sans' hands were still on her shoulders. "Come on, kiddo," he said with his signature grin. " _Water_ you doing, sitting there crying?" he said with a wink. "Go reset. It's not over yet."

Frisk sniffed and gazed up at him and this time, she did not wear her common passive expression or a malicious grin with glowing eyes, but a small smile of hope and determination.


End file.
